Now was the moment of reckoning.
Now was the time to get him for all he’d done to me and mine. Now was the time to avenge them.
A kick to his chin snapped his head back and knocked the gun out of his hands. But he regained his footing, dove on me, and we rolled from the impact. Him throwing punches at me, me giving back as much as I got, but fuck, we were too close to the edge. There was a rail, and I could see his aim was to get me closer.
“You’ll die for pissing me off, Morientz.” Goliath sent a punch to my face that made me see stars, and he shuffled his way on top of me, holding me in a lock that made it difficult to break. His thighs secured my head while he pummeled me into the fucking ground.
He could kill me like this. Beat me to a bloody pulp until there was nothing left of me but blood and bones.
Ava…
I hadn’t told her I loved her before I left her.
I didn’t know this was going to happen. That she’d get taken again right from under my nose.
My Angel Doll. I called her that because that was exactly what she looked like. When I looked at her, that white mass of blonde hair seemed to brighten like pure light. Like a halo.
Then there was her beautiful soul. I swore to God I could see it every time she looked at me.
I’d loved her from that first day I saw her.
I loved her like nothing else.
It felt like an eternity passed as Goliath beat me to death. Then I heard it. The words Marissa had spoken.
Take care of my sister. That was the last thing she’d said to me. Her last request.
So, what was I doing?
The memory gave me new life, and all I had to do to gather strength was think of Ava.
Goliath was holding my upper body down, but I had my legs.
Raising my knees and using all my strength, I kneed him hard in his back, pushing him forward.
That split second gave me the opportunity I needed to flip him over my head. He crashed into the rail, but it didn’t stop him. Him reaching for the rail didn’t stop him either.
He went straight over. I watched him go straight over and down. Falling. Falling… falling to his death.
I had to look. Despite my injuries I rushed over to the rail and saw the exact moment Goliath hit the ground with a loud smack. Right on the tarmac he landed. Dead.
No way had he survived the fall. It was a good thirty feet down.
His body looked broken from here. He looked dead. Dead on the same grounds where he killed Marissa.
That was all I gave him, a look and a thought. This wasn’t over yet. Jude still had Ava.
I had to save her.
Chapter 31
Ava
* * *
“Wake up.” A large hand landed across my face snapping me straight to consciousness.
My face that had already been struck today by another man.
The force used felt worse. It hurt more. My eyes fluttered open and beheld Jude’s angry face.
I tried to open my mouth but couldn’t. Strong tape held it shut and my hands were bound behind me.
He crouched down at my feet and I made the mistake of looking down.
I screamed when my gaze landed on the vest strapped around me with a square device on the front with something next to it that looked like a fire work. A bomb. It was a bomb. An actual bomb.
He’d strapped a fucking bomb to me, just the way a bomb was strapped to Marissa. I screamed again but of course no sound came out with the tape across my mouth. Tears streamed down my cheeks in an instant at the terror of what could happen to me.
Jude was undoing ropes wrapped around my feet. I didn’t know why.
“Get up,” he snarled grabbing me up.
My legs buckled and I nearly fell over. his hold on me tightened and he looked around the place panicked.
What was going on? He didn’t seem to exhibit the bravado he’d had before he took me, and where was I?
Where the hell was I?
The place was …
Wait I recognized it. This wasn’t the same place but it was a warehouse. A bit more done up than the one I’d been placed in years ago, but I was right.
He moved with me to an area surrounded by rows of large shelves. Some had metal parts, others had reels of wires. There were so many rows of shelves it looked like a maze. The lighting was also bad.
Jude stopped when we heard a door in the distance open. Then voices.
“Jude!” Bellowed a voice I thought I recognized but wasn’t certain.
The voice held so much anger and fury it made me shake.
“Juddddddddddddde.”
Jude stopped and in an instant I knew it was. It was Claudius.
“Fucking bastard.” Jude frowned.
I looked around trying to see where Claudius was but got nothing.
Nothing except footsteps. They sounded everywhere, all at once. Then I realized it wasn’t just him who came. There were more people.
“Jude.” That was Dante.
“You’re outnumbered Jude.” That was Gio.
“Vastly, outnumbered.” Luc. That was Luc.
A guy with spiky black hair rushed up to us. He was the guy that came through the window.
“We’re surrounded. There’s at least ten of them.” He spoke in a hushed voice.
“Where’s Joe?” Jude asked.
The man shook his head. “No one’s responding to my calls. I think they know Goliath’s dead.”
Goliath dead. Claudius. He must have done it. He did it.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel that some form of justice had been served with his death, but look at me. Look at the situation I was in.
“Go to the front and cover me.” Jude ordered once again tightening his grip on my arm. It hurt so much.
The man readied his gun and snaked down the aisle opposite us while we continued toward the back of the place where it got darker.
“Jude, let her go and come and face me like a man,” Claudius screamed.
We got to a door. Jude tried to open it but it seemed like it was locked from the outside.
“Shit.”
Bullets sounded and then a desperate cry of terror. Jude pulled me behind a shelf that had boxes of all different shapes and sizes.
A noise shuffled behind us and Jude whirled around.
Claudius stood there holding out two guns in front of him. His face was worse beaten and bloody than earlier. Beaten and swollen.
Luc, Dante and Gio came into view, behind him. Guns up.
Jude laughed a cynical laugh and pressed his gun to my temple hard, holding me tight to his chest. So tight I thought he was going to crush me.
This was the fourth time now that I’d had to fear for my life like this.
The fourth time, and from the way things looked, it might be the last.
“Let her go, Jude,” Luc ordered. “It’s over.”
“You prick, you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” Jude cried
Claudius wasn’t saying anything. It meant he was infernal mad. Like a volcano minutes before it erupted.
“Bastard, we all trusted you. You were playing us this whole time,” Luc continued.
Dante and Gio glared at him too. Disappointment on their faces.
Jude pulled the trigger back, and I thought this was it for me.
“Heard you were the guy who took my girl the first time,” Claudius barked, finally speaking. His voice sounded everywhere all at once in the vast expanse of the space before us. “Jude, is that right?”
I kept my gaze trained on Claudius, but he wasn’t looking at me. He looked above me at Jude.
“If you know, why are you asking? Boss,” Jude threw back and laughed. “Didn’t you think it made for an interesting game? Except you should have died too. You know what? Goliath wanted to cut your head off. A crazy-ass man like that, and that was all he came up with. It was my brilliant idea to strap the bomb to your wife, grab her twin, and tr
y to make you see which one you could save. I have all these ingenious ideas that these people don’t really make use of. Goliath did it his way. Game of chance. Same with Victor and Henry. At least he took me up on using the old mental home.”
I saw the dark look in both Claudius and Luc’s eyes at the mention of Henry. I knew that would be another stab to the chest. I’d already been in Europe when Henry died, but I’d heard about it. Marissa told me.
“All those ideas, and I was never more than a grunt. Time for that all to change. Joe was going to pay me a lot for this gig. Your little stunt today cost me a million dollars. This is me recouping some of my losses. I wonder if her death would make you lose your mind. Such a shame I never got to use the bomb, but blowing her brains is still just as good.”
The trigger clicked in my ear.
He was going to kill me. This was it. This was it. My final moment.
My gaze locked with Claudius but he still wasn’t looking at me.
I was hoping he could see how much I loved him with my eyes.
I snapped my eyes shut though when Jude released the trigger.
* * *
Claudius
* * *
Click, clack, and –
That was all.
All I would allow. Jude actually released the trigger, but I got to him first and my bullet in his neck made him fire the shot in the wall across from him instead of Ava’s head.
He screamed a piercing wailing sound that tore through my soul and grabbed at his neck. Jude pulled Ava down with him as he fell to the ground.
She shuffled away from him as blood spurted from his neck and his eyes rolled back in his head.
While everyone else stared at Jude, I rushed to Ava. She was shaking and crying. I pulled the tape from off her mouth first , ripped the damn bomb vest from her chest and crushed her to me.
I froze up because I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to shoot him. I didn’t want to kill him.
Jude, Alex’s brother. Jude, one of The Four.
Being suspicious was a lot different to facing reality. There’s always that in between, that room of possibility where you could be wrong.
Hearing goliath tell me Jude had Ava, seeing Jude with Ava and hearing the venom of his words showing his hate for us told all.
I was right and I had to end him.
He was the first person I ever killed that left me feeling like this. Hollow and empty.
“Claudius.” Ava wailed she was still shaking.
Luc and the guys started walking, back the way we’d come.
But… the clicking behind me told me this wasn’t over yet.
Click, clack… then…
BANG!
I looked around to see Jude go down again. Blurt spurted from the side of his head. Someone shot him, someone shot him preventing him from shooting me.
Someone…
Not just any someone.
A few metres away stood Alex, gun still held out, aiming at Jude.
He’d killed him.
He’d shot his brother and killed him, saving me.
The horrified look on his face pulled on my heart, and worse was the tear that ran down his cheek.
He didn’t look at me. He stared at Jude’s lifeless body then turned and walked away.
Chapter 32
Ava
* * *
Gio took me to the hospital.
That was where everyone was.
Yesterday I was taken to the hospital along with Marcus who had a few broken ribs.
I was physically okay, but he had to stay in.
Claudius took me back to his place and I slept and slept, drained from all that had happened to me.
I couldn’t believe I’d made it out alive.
When I woke up earlier I found Gio downstairs keeping watch, just in case.
The nurse directed us to a private room where Marcus was staying. I saw Luc and Dante first. Then Amelia. She was sitting on the edge of the bed with a bowl of soup, trying to feed Marcus.
He looked awful with all the bruises on his face.
“Pet, I swear to God I’ll throw the damn soup through the window. I hate soup,” Marcus complained, shaking his head.
“Marcus, I’m not leaving until you eat the soup.”
“Lucian, your wife is driving me crazy.”
“Pa, just drink it.” That was Claudius.
I saw him now as Gio and I stepped inside.
All eyes turned to us, but I couldn’t look away from Claudius. I thought Marcus looked bad, but Claudius’ face looked far worse than yesterday. Today there was hardly an area of his face that didn’t have a bruise or swelling.
“Are you okay, pet?” Marcus asked me, drawing my attention back to him.
I nodded. “Are you? I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
He reached his hand to me, and I moved closer to take it.
“I’ve had worse. I kind of needed some action. Things were too quiet.”
“They were.” I tried to play along, but it was hard.
I looked to Claudius when Marcus released my hand, and he came over to me.
“We’ll be back,” he told everyone and slipped his arm around me, ushering me back outside.
We stopped in the corridor near the turn to go to the cardiothoracic department.
We stopped and looked at each other. I had so much I wanted to say to him. I just didn’t know where to begin. How to begin.
And… I noticed he seemed to be having the same problem. To me that meant one thing. It meant he must have been on the same damn train of thought he’d been on this whole time, and I’d be damn well damned if I was going to live like this for another ten years. I could see it. It would be me trying to get over him the way I had for the last ten years. Me growing into my forties trying to search for the completion I felt with him and not finding it.
It would be me spending every minute of every day thinking about him. The same way I had for the last ten years.
When I looked at him, I saw past the bruises, and the person who stood before me was the guy he used to be. Again I saw him, the guy who’d tried to get my attention ten years ago by asking me to make him a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. The guy he was before he got the cross tattooed on his cheek.
“You look terrible,” I said and pursed my lips together.
“Yeah. I know.”
“Worse than yesterday, and you looked bad then. If there were a patch on your cheek that wasn’t beaten, I would slap you too.” I placed my hands on my hips.
He closed his eyes, opened them again, and leaned his head to the side, allowing his dark locks to drift over his shoulder.
“Why, Ava? Why do you want to slap me?”
“I don’t know how you could ask me that, as if you wouldn’t deserve it. First, you left me with Gio, you should have woken me so I could be here like everyone else. Then there were the last few days. You didn’t answer any of my calls and left me with your brother, and now… look at you. You’re standing in front of me probably trying to figure out how to cut me loose, while I’m here loving you so damn much.”
His expression softened, and I hoped to God that what I saw in his eyes was a spark and not something I imagined.
“I’m not leaving,” I added. “I won’t leave you alone. You can tell me whatever you want, but I will follow you around forever if I must until you see that we’re supposed to be together. I’m going to be selfish, and for once I’m going to care about me. I won’t leave you alone, Claudius. In my head, I’m still that person waiting for you. I’m still waiting for you to do something. Whatever that is. Something more than looking at me like I’m crazy, and—”
He stopped my rant with a kiss. He reached for me, slipping his hand behind my head, and captured my mouth with his. A force comparable to an electrical charge washed over me and shook me from the inside out.
“Marry me,” he whispered against my lips. At least that’s what I thought he said.
> Right now, I could have been imagining all sorts of things, especially after that kiss.
“What?” I breathed.
He smoothed his hands over my cheek, then stepped back and reached into his pocket for the little blue velvet pouch he’d showed me weeks ago. The one that contained my engagement ring.
As if I weren’t shocked enough, he went and shocked me further by dropping to both knees and reaching for my hand.
“Ava De Luca, my Angel Doll.” Claudius looked up at me with the deepest conviction and love I’d ever seen. “Sorry isn’t a strong enough word to express all I feel for what I put you and your family through. I don’t know when I’ll stop feeling this way, but I can’t live without you. I tried so hard, but I can’t do it. I’m selfish, and I should leave you alone, but I can’t. I can’t live without you. So, please… just be mine. Marry me and be my wife. Please, marry me. I promise to love you more than I always have and protect you. Just say yes.”
All I could do was stare, but I wouldn’t waste time staring for longer than I should, shaken by the shock of his words.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Yes?” he asked as if my answer should be a surprise to him.
“Absolutely yes.”
I’d never seen him look so nervous. His hands even shook as he took out the ring and slipped it on my finger. It felt like it had always belonged there.
He stood up and kissed me again.
When we pulled apart, we both saw Luc and Amelia standing at the end of the corridor. Luc had his arm around Amelia, and she rested against his chest beaming at us. They both were.
They didn’t say anything. They just smiled, then they turned and walked in the opposite direction.
“Let’s go home, Doll.” Claudius took my hands and ran his finger over my ring.
I leaned into him and smiled. “Yes.”
Home.
Home for me had always felt like the place I was whenever I was with him.
It was a good place to live.
* * *
Claudius
Dirty Hearts: A Bad Bod Mafia Romance Page 25